Figures
released today by Transport for London (TfL) reveal that more people
are using London Underground (LU) than at any point in its 152-year
history.

Close
to five million customers (4.735 million) used the Tube on 9 October
2015, making it the network’s busiest day ever. The previous record was
reached on Friday 28 November 2014, when 4.734 million passengers
travelled on the Tube.

The
last week of October was the busiest ever week, with 28.614 million
customer journeys. The previous busiest week was in December 2014, which
saw 28.345 million journeys. TfL expects both the daily and weekly
records to be broken again before the end of 2015. Overall, the number
of customer journeys on the Tube has increased by a third since 2001,
with the rate of growth increasing in the last five years.

Nick
Brown, LU’s Managing Director, said: “The Tube is carrying more
customers than ever before as London’s economy and population continue
to grow. This is why we are continuing to invest all of our income to
modernise the service, improving reliability, train capacity and
frequency and upgrading major stations to reduce congestion.”

The
current work to improve London Underground is one of the largest
programmes of infrastructure investment in the world. With each Tube
line being overhauled it is the biggest upgrade on the network in 60
years. Major stations, trains, track and signalling are being modernised
or replaced which is supporting 43,000 jobs across the UK and although
there is still much to do, customers are already seeing the benefits.

More
frequent trains than ever before are running on the Victoria line and a
new signalling system on the Northern line is providing a faster, more
frequent and more reliable service. Because of the modernisation,
journeys are now quicker, with an average reduction of two minutes, and
delays down by 43 per cent in the last five years.

Work
to transform Victoria, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street stations is
well underway and Holborn, Bank and Camden Town stations will soon
benefit from upgrades.

Further
upgrades are ahead, with new air-conditioned trains now serving the
Metropolitan, District, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines, new
signalling planned for those lines, and the radical modernisation of the
Central, Piccadilly, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City Lines in the
2020s. Work on the Northern line extension to Battersea is due to start
this year, which will support thousands of new jobs and homes and enable
major regeneration in the Vauxhall, Battersea and Nine Elms areas.

London
is growing faster than any other European city. Its population of 8.6
million today will become nine million by 2018, and 10 million by 2030.
The city’s public transport and road networks need steady and sustained
investment to enable productive growth and the creation of the new jobs
and housing the city needs.

But is London's 24-hour Night Tube plan dying?

Night Tube service 'will not happen this year'

With
talks between London Underground (LU) and the unions at an impasse and
showing little sign of progress, are there now further signs the idea of
a Night Tube is withering?

Previously London Mayor Boris Johnson
has said the Night Tube could not be at "any cost" and today he told LBC
Radio the weekend service was not "absolutely critical".

Asked
whether he could provide a date for the introduction of the 24-hour
Tube, Mr Johnson said: "I've got to tell you this is something that the
city of London has done without for 150 years. What I won't do is pay an
unreasonable price for it, which Londoners would feel in their fares."There's
a very good deal on the table. I just hope that members of the Tube
unions will get a chance to look at it. No-one will work more hours than
they do today. Drivers have the same number of weekends as now.

"I
want you to know that this is something I think we should have but - I
hope my attitude is clear - it is not something that I regard as
absolutely critical."

That is arguably a further shift away from a policy announced with much fanfare alongside the closure of ticket offices two years ago.

Compared
to the policy of closing ticket offices the differences are stark. LU
forced those closures through even though the unions didn't want the
changes.

With the Night Tube it depends on the agreement of those same unions, but it cannot force the changes through without drivers.

There
also doesn't seem to be a sense of uproar from anyone that the plans
for the Night Tube now seem to be in disarray; there is no start date
and there seems to be political apathy around the whole idea.

Of course there is much bluff and bluster during these talks, but it does makes you wonder if it'll ever happen?

Sometimes it's quicker to walk! Tube bosses unveil first official
map showing how long it'll take if you DON'T use the London Underground

Transport for London revealed new map showing the walking distances between each station today

The image proves that it can be quicker to walk between two stations rather than taking an Underground train

Bosses want to encourage commuters and visitors to think about whether they should be walking

London
transport bosses have revealed for the first time how long it takes to
walk between Tube stations with a new map giving the distance between
each stop on the network.

The
map, which covers Zones 1 and 2, replicates the standard Tube plan but
adding a number between each pair of stations which are next to each
other on the same line.It
could have the paradoxical effect of encouraging people not to use
Transport for London services - but officials say they want people to
walk rather than take ultra-short Tube journeys.

The
map was created after a number of similar, unofficial images were made
by Tube enthusiasts and gained popularity among commuters.

A
spokesman said: 'What we have seen is that people
are desperate for this sort of thing, so we have created it. We focused
on central London, Zones 1 and 2, and based the times of our journey
planner.'

The
map vividly shows how in the City and the West End, some stations are so
close together that it would probably be quicker to walk between them
than take the Tube.

For
example, it takes just four minutes to walk from Leicester Square to
Covent Garden, or Cannon Street to Mansion House, while there are only
three minutes between Charing Cross and Embankment - which used to be a
single station.

By
contrast, it takes more than half an hour to walk between Bethnal Green
and Liverpool Street, or King's Cross St Pancras and Highbury &
Islington.

Some
commentators have used the revelation of the map to argue for the
construction of new Tube stations in areas where there is an unusually
large distance between stops.

Despite
the potential loss of its revenue, TfL encourages travellers -
especially tourists, who may be less familiar with London's geography -
to walk rather than take short Tube journeys.

Gordon
Innes of London & Partners, which promotes the capital on behalf of
Mayor Boris Johnson, said today: 'The new Walking Tube map is a great
new resource for visitors to London.

'Although
the Tube is the most used transport method by visitors in London,
stations for many of our top attractions are within walking distance of
each other.

'Walking
from the buzz of Leicester Square to the markets of Covent Garden takes
just four minutes, but many tourists make the longer journey by Tube.'

Earlier this year, a secret TfL map which shows Tube lines on a realistic plan of London came to light for the first time.

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